DALMAT'S FIGHT WITH SPURS KID

Two Spurs players had dressing-room fight ahead of Premiership showdown against Arsenal...

TWO Spurs players had a dressing-room fight ahead of today's Premiership showdown against Arsenal.

The bust-up took place as Spurs try to halt a slump of one point from the last 18. The club have been sucked into a relegation dogfight and tension is mounting among the players.

It came to a head when stroppy Frenchman Stephane Dalmat struck youth team kid Jamie O'Hara when an argument between the pair turned nasty.

The latest incident in Dalmat's chequered career at Spurs came after Monday night's reserve game against Charlton.

Other players jumped in to split up the duo, with exciting prospect O'Hara, just 17, coming off worse.

Donna Cullen, Tottenham's Head of Communications, told The SP: "Yes, there was an incident in the heat of the moment but Stephane has since apologised to Jamie and it's all blown over. There will be no further action.''

Onlookers have told The SP that Dalmat told O'Hara after the game he ''should show more respect to a senior professional''.

When O'Hara stood up for himself, Dalmat lunged at the midfielder and belted him. Dalmat's agent Alexandre Krstic said last night: "Put it this way, with the amount of Champions League games Stephane has played and the top clubs he has played for, he deserves to be treated with respect.

"I know there was a problem the other night, but he's never had a problem with his discipline at any of the other clubs he has played for.

"But he will be leaving Spurs at the end of the season and going back to Inter.''

"There was nothing to it. These things happen in football and Dalmat has apologised.

"The guy is what he is and that's where it ends. It was an issue, but they are pals again. There's nothing more to say.'' But the amazing dust-up has been the talk of the Spurs training ground for much of the week and many at the club cannot wait for Dalmat's season-long loan spell to end.

Incredibly, it is the third time Dalmat has been involved in training ground bust-ups since he arrived.

The dressing-room dispute came just a week after the Frenchman fell out with full-back Stephen Carr.

Last November, The SP revealed that Dalmat failed to show up for training the day after he was substituted during Spurs' Carling Cup win against West Ham. But he has alienated himself from many of his team-mates and it is understood he did not even want to travel to the team's training hideaway at Five Lakes in Essex ahead of today's visit of Arsenal.

Dalmat has not played for the first team in more than a month and it is also understood Bayern Munich will try and land him in the summer.

A Spurs insider said: "It doesn't really take much for Dalmat to go off and people haven't stopped talking about him taking out O'Hara.

"He's only a kid, but it didn't bother Dalmat. He's a law unto himself. Dalmat comes across as arrogant and aloof.''